Literary Analysis: The Stranger

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Literary Analysis Book- The Stranger by Albert Camus
Introduction
Mr. Meursault, the protagonist and narrator in Albert Camus's The Stranger, is a Franco-Algerian man who indifferent to the world around him. After committing an Arab man, Meursault does not show remorse, and he appears unbothered from his mother's death. Meursault's attitude clashes with social conventions and leads him to his death sentence. Camus describes a society where there frustration and despair in which Europe after the war. Meursault feels alienated and is disenchanted with life, partly because he lacks meaning in life. As the protagonist lacks life goals and the drive to live, he gives up trying and leaves his life to fate when he is charged with murder. This is an analysis of the book's theme, which explores Meursault's ideas and inspiration for writing The Stranger. The themes are indifference and passivity, absurdity or irrationality, isolation, and death.
 Indifference and Passivity
In the first part of the novel, Meursault receives the news of his mother's death, and he is passive and emotionless at the nursing home. The opening line begins with him receiving a telegram about his mother's death, but he was not sure of the day she was at the Home for Aged Persons at Marengo (Camus 4). Even the next day after the funeral, he is more concerned with going back to Algiers. In the second part of the novel, the protagonist is arrested for murder, and he is apathetic, and he accepts his fate when he is sentenced to death.
Meursault lacks self-awareness as he fails to identify his feelings or motives in life. He Understands that life has no meaning or purpose and that the world is profoundly indifferent to people who do their best to live. Thus, life has no meaning, and those who try the hardest are doing this in vain. The protagonist's indifference extends to how he fails to follow the society's moral code and order and after murdering the Arab for no apparent reason. Meursault is a unique character as he has no expectations from others, and while other people, including the justice system, pass judgment on him, he is unbothered.
Absurdity/irrationality 
Absurdity is one of the major themes, where Meursault refuses to conform, and he constantly questions the meaning of life. The protagonist sees life as absurd as regardless of whatever people do, they will eventually die. Absurdity is closely linked with the idea of irrationality, where rational meaning is absent in life. Nonetheless, people try rationalizing about the meaning of life, yet, rationality does not necessarily exist. The protagonist questions everything that cannot be explained with evidence as he is skeptical of everything around him. Meursault is a rebellious and irresponsible man who is answerable to one.
 The writer explores life's meaning to address the theme of absurdity, and the protagonist fails to live a purposeful life, which makes his life directionless and absurd. Lacking a sense of meaningful life is associated with lacking an answer on life and this strange as one seems to have no purpose in life. “Of this he was absolutely sure; if ever he came to doubt it, his
Life would lose all meanin...